We have tried each year to do a few CM-ish type things, and this year I really want to go as full CM as I can.We are 4 weeks into the year, so we are starting a little late, but we had to get adjusted to our new baby before I felt I could take on more. My oldest is about to turn 11, in 6th grade.
So far we are doing Spelling Wisdom, copywork 4x a week, bible everyday, CLE math everyday, TruthQuest History everyday, a regular spelling curriculum everyday, Abeka science 3x week, and the reading curriculum from CLE 3x week. It is only half a year. And writing, which we use Ignite Your Writing, but only 1x a week so far.
I am now wanting to add in Nature study, current events writing, typing, literature reading and foreign language. I have no idea how to schedule all of this without it taking 6 hours a day! I have picked out 9 different lit books to add to our reading, and I am not sure how to fit them all in without him reading multiple books at once, plus his CLE reading. And I am not sure if he should continue his writing program or if doing current events 2x a week as well as narration for his lit books would be enough. I am thinking that it wouldn’t be, as it wouldn’t be teaching the different forms and such. I don’t know… as I said, I feel like my head is about to explode from trying to figure all this out, so ANY advice would be very appreciated!
First, I would say that with a new baby, you might want to stop thinking of it as “starting a little late,” but rather, give yourself permission to say, “this is when we chose to start this particular school year.” After all, you are the parents, the headmasters, the school principals, the family school board presidents….you get the idea!
Second, if it’s all too much right now, it would be very CM-ish (gentle, short lessons) to cut back on your schedule as much as you need to, and then add things in a little at a time over a few weeks. For example, you might just do copywork twice a week for now, or three times if it is the one thing that is going very well. Also, if you are using both Spelling Wisdom and another spelling curriculum, just pick one or the other. It’s tempting to think that dictation alone is “not enough” for spelling, but you won’t really know that until you try it for a semester or two, unless it’s very obvious that it is not a good fit for your child.
I have to say, until high school, the only things we did every single day were math and some sort of language arts/reading. Most of the time we did literature every day, but that’s only when we all love, love, love the book & it’s a family read-aloud. Each week, we split science and history, usually science 2x’s a week & history 3x’s a week. Things like geography, music, art, poetry we only do once a week typically.
If you lighten up a lot for now and then add things in, you’ll all enjoy learning much more. Don’t worry about “getting everything done” by year’s end.
We decided to try both spellings due to advice I received on an earlier post, bc my son is a terrible speller. I am hoping that adding SW with his SWS, that the one-two punch will help it click. If it gets to be too much, though, one of them will be dropped. What do you think about writing? Is narration/current events enough or should that be in addition to IYW?
How long do you think a day should be using CM as the basis for a 6th grader? Right now we take about 2 hours in the morning, and another hour in the afternoon.
Oh, do you think all of this is too much? From what I have read each topic is covered through the year, though I am not sure how often each one is scheduled during the week.
Thank you for the support — having our little surprise has us dropping back and punting. LOL
Oh, I forgot! We do Winston Grammar, too. 2 x a week.
I also found the Intermediate Language Lessons I purchased about 6 months ago and forgot about… do you think that would be good to use? Perhaps in place of some things we use now?
Nature Study with one of our walks 15-20 minutes for journaling,
Legends (during breakfast) 15 minutes
Picture Study 5-10 minutes
Composer Study 5-10 minutes to read about composer, then listen as we eat/work,
Fairy Tale during breakfast – 15-20 minutes
Friday – Shakespeare 30 minutes or so
Foreign Language Lessons (ASL) – 20 minutes
English From the Roots Up (Greek and Latin root words) – 5 minutes
Creative Art experiences – 30-60 minutes
Then when the olders are doing their independent subjects, I do Kindergarten stuff with my littles.
Looking at what you wrote (if I am getting it all, lol):
Winston Grammar is aimed for the older grades. ILL is aimed at 4-6th grade. So I wouldn’t do both…and ILL has writing letters, descriptive writing, grammar, picture study, dictionary skills, and more. It would be a great resource for teaching various forms of writing without needing all those other rprograms. That would totally lighten up your load. My kids are pretty much independent with it – I do have to explain a few things. And we only schedule it 3x week. So, yes, I would ditch all the writing programs and just use ILL and written narrations. It is enough.
Is your son a struggling reader? If not, why don’t you let him read those nine books and ditch the CLE reading program. He will learn so many things from great literature! Have a minumun amount of time and add to it gradually.
Do Abeka twice a week and on the third day, add Nature Study.
Listen to literature during lunch.
The PS don’t finish their books in a scheduled year. (At least not the ones I used. lol) We get a lot done even though I have friends who think that we are doing something wrong to not be every subject for at least an hour a day…seriously, lighten up the load and enjoy it. =)
Okay, I was going to mention the public school thing, but I bit my tongue while thinking, “I don’t want to compare my kids to public school!” LOL! It always bothered me as a kid that we didn’t get through the last chapter or two of many textbooks, as if I thought someone would stand there at high school graduation and ask, “DID YOU FINISH ALL OF YOUR TEXTBOOKS EVERY YEAR??? NO?!! THEN YOU DON’T GET TO GRADUATE!!!”
Of course, an elementary school teacher once told me that they often consider those last chapters optional because they generally cover the very same concepts they have to teach as “review” during the first few weeks of the next school year….
My 6th grader’s schedule is similar to Sue’s 6th grader’s, minus the reading time at breakfast and lunch. We used to listen to a lot of audio books but in the car only..my dc do not seem to do as well at home. I do plan to finish up one that we started in the car but didn’t finish and we’re going to try it here at the house, we’ll see how that goes.
Have you looked at the sample schedules on the SCM site? They were helpful to me in the beginning.
I don’t have a 6th grader this year. But, I’d say, if you feel the need to use more than one resource for a subject, alternate days each one is used. The variety will by the “one, two” and the days will be shortened.
I have a 6th grader as well. Here is our general schedule:
–copywork/Spelling Wisdom/curisve (only one each day)–10 min.
–Bible/Catechism memory–10 min.
–Daily Family Studies: Mystery of History, 106 Days of Creation, Literature– 15-20 min. per subject
–Weekly or 2/3 X per week familiy subjects: Latin, drawing lesson, LDTR for Children, Family Time Fitness, Music, Bible study, hymn study, poetry, Shakespeare–These are set up so we do no more than 3-4 of these each day.–5-20 minutes depending on subject
–Math, independent reading, typing, math drills, piano are done after family subjects. Typing and math drills are done 2x/week. Math, reading, and piano and daily subjects. I try to finish these before lunch, but we sometimes do piano in the afternoons. I’ll end our family studies early if needed so we can get to math before lunch. To be honest, we don’t get to all of these everyday. Math is our top priority…I figure they read on their own before bed, so it’s not as essential.
–After lunch, I try to schedule more time consuming subjects like handicrafts, art, and nature study. We also often do larger projects in the afternoons…or just work on chores. This year I have scheduled catch-up days for science and history for when we are short on time or want to add in extra readings or activities. I also add in some of our other subjects here if we are short on time earlier in the week.
For writing, we mostly do that through written narrations, so I don’t have it schedule seperately…usually we cover this with history and science. For grammar, I “sneak” it in through Latin and copywork/dictation. If we are pressed for time, we’ll skip some subjects for the week, or save them for a day when we have more time.
I have a quick question… I recently purchased Spelling Wisdom and am planning on using it as copywork for 4 days, with the 5th day being dictation. This will cover copywork function as well as helping with spelling. We do SWS, too, but it isn’t quite enough as he is a terrible speller. Since we are doing copywork everyday, though, how often should he do handwriting? We only still do handwriting bc we just started learning cursive. I think if I tell him that once he can write all of his letter properly and read cursive writing correctly, then we can drop the handwriting. I believe that will speed him up on learning it. LOL
But until then, do you think that is too much writing during the day?
If he is able to write well and does well on a daily basis, he doesn’t really need to continue with handwriting practice. He will get that through written narrations and a Book of Mottoes that he writes in weekly. Generally, I have my kids choose a scripture, poem, or something they read that made them think duing their weekly readings and transcribe it into their Book of Mottoes. At this point my oldest practices her typing M-TH and writes in her Book of Mottoes on Friday.
We do cursive for 5 minutes daily until the child is fluent in reading and writing cursive. I actually use a timer for my reluctant and stuggling child…it makes it easier for her to transition and know that it won’t last all day. lol
The copywork involved in preparing for SW is also quite short – about 5-10 minutes of diligent work daily. Of course the time varies according to the passage, but I see no need to stretch it out for long periods of time.